V001 / JSI / T47

On 12 June 2015, the journal Nature Communications published an article entitled “Spin-stripe phase in a frustrated zigzag spin-1/2 chain”, by Matej Pregelj, Andrej Zorko and Denis Arčon from the Condensed Matter Physics (F5) department at the Jožef Stefan Institute, in collaboration with partners from Switzerland, France and Japan. The results unveil the beta-TeVO4 compound as a model system of a frustrated spin chain. The main result is the discovery of a magnetic stripe structure on the nanoscale, which appears at the transition between the spiral and collinear magnetic orders. In contrast to known modulated electron systems, in beta-TeVO4 the stripes are stabilized in the absence of long-range interactions. The presented system thus allows a better understanding of the origin of the intriguing nanometre-sized modulation in other systems, e.g., high-temperature superconductors.